Penn Elcom Launches Innovative New CaseDesigner Software

Flightcase and speaker cabinet solutions specialist Penn Elcom has developed a new ground-breaking software programme - â€˜CaseDesigner' - instigating a new fully-flexible era in the world of flightcase construction.

Penn Elcom, always at the cutting edge of this specialist industry, has developed this completely unique software to offer its distributors, dealers and their clients the best and most efficient possible design, order and build service.

The fully visual graphical interface enables Penn Elcom customers to plan and visualise potential new case designs in both 2D and 3D, and view in full 360 degree rotation.

CaseDesigner enables Penn clients to generate a quote for themselves, and within literally a couple of minutes, have all the facts available to produce that case at their fingertips.

Thomas Mostert, CEO of Penn Elcom GmbH, the distribution arm of the Penn Elcom Group in Continental Europe and programmer Klaus Koppenhoefer who previously owned his own case company, are the driving forces behind CaseDesigner.

Says Mostert, “This has been developed in response to our growing business and our desire to keep at the forefront of the industry. We need to be agile and deliver information quickly and accurately to our customers. This both empowers and is also a tool that is great fun to work with!”

Simultaneous to showing the evolving design onscreen, CaseDesigner will generate a full list of components needed to build the case, including the sheet cutting sizes, etc., and a total cost.

Users can either create a fully bespoke case from scratch, or select from a large library of standard pre-set cases, to which they can add dimensions, tweak, and also customise if required.

As soon as any measurement values are added to the drawing, the case can be viewed onscreen, together with accurate details of the costs, labour and time involved can be calculated – all in a matter of minutes. Clients can decide from there if they need to make modifications to fit their budget and delivery timescale.

The CGIs can be incorporated into other documents or lists at the push of a button, or can be saved for presentations.

A comprehensive list of Penn Elcom flightcase fittings and accessories (catches, handles, grills etc.) are pre-drawn and can also be added to the designs at this stage, together with some user-defined parts.

The case can be specified with or without dividers or foam interiors, and other extras like custom parts and third party services can also be calculated.

Case fittings can be added to the drawings with millimetre adjustment, so precise details of the required case/s can be discussed in real time with customers as their case evolves right in front of them.

The time and material calculations are meanwhile going on in the background and output so you can get everything needed for production – including all the â€˜hidden' items like rivets, dividers, foam inserts etc. which are not specifically required to design the shell of the case.

CaseDesigner regular users can create their own library of cases which can be recalled any time for the basis of a potential new case design. From these, new variants can be produced in seconds, and added to the library.

The CaseDesigner roll out will be regionally specific to ensure that all the accessories (e.g. extrusions) and measurement units are correct, and the necessary price variations will also be incorporated.

An Order module is integrated into the programme which allows the user to create an appropriate order comfortably and easily. Pressing the Send button uploads the order to the Penn web server, from where it is fetched and read into Penn's internal ordering system. The electronic transfer of information ensures that the information remains exactly as per the order.

The first region in which Penn Elcom's CaseDesigner is being operated in is continental Europe. The reaction to it at the recent Prolight+Sound exhibition in Frankfurt was “Phenomenal” reports Mostert.

The next roll outs will be in the UK, USA, South America and Australia.